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It was the first stage of the fail-safe prograaseous accelerant into the air It took a minimum of fifteen minutes to reach critical levels And while it was safe to breathe for at least a couple of hours, they didn’t have that long In another ten hout the base and trigger a firestorm across all levels of central command The flash fire would last only a few seconds, fed by the accelerant in the air, searing every surface within the concrete bunker Then sprinklers would kick in, dousing the flames immediately

Inside the communication nest, Painter checked the row ofvideo feed fro the for It showed Mapplethorpe standing beside Sean McKnight He held a pistol to Sean’s back Behind the down an open stairwell door

Painter tapped on the audio from the camera

"--madness," Sean said "You can’t circumvent channels like this Do you think you can perforency, then try to clean it up afterward?"

"I’ve done it before," Mapplethorpe growled "It’s all athe results to match the offense"

"In other words, the ends justify the et aith it Two people are dead"

"Is that all? Like I said, I’ve done this many times before Abroad and here"

Painter cut into the conversation He spoke into a h speakers on that floor "Mapplethorpe!"

The man jolted, but he kept his pistol steady He searched around, then found the ca into a sneer of derision "Ah, Director, so you haven’t evacuated with the rest of your people Very good Then let us end this quickly Bring up the girl, and no one else needs to get hurt"

Painter spoke into the microphone "We’ve already taken out your irl where you won’t find her"

"Is that so?" Mapplethorpe sniffed a bit at the air "I see you’ve activated Sigram"

Painter felt a chill The man had obtained more than just their base schematics; he’d tapped deep into their protocols Sean had warned hiers everywhere, a black spider dancing in the intelligence web His oily and bland deerous core

"And I believe you’ve set the ti the depths of his intel "We’ve been unable to decrypt the code to stop it, but so twenty hostages above Twenty of your men and women With faot the brass balls to let them die, to be slain by your own hand Whereas I--"

Mapplethorpe lifted his gun to the back of Sean’s head

"--have no such qualms"

Theinto a digital pop and squawk Sean fell to his knees, then to the floor

Painter’s chest tightened, unable to take a breath Disbelief rang through him A part of him expected Sean to stand back up, to shake off the attack But just as quickly, a flah Painter Stunned at the man’s brutality and callousness, Painter could form no words

Unlike his adversary

Mapplethorpe’s voice returned "We’re co to stop us"

18

September 7, 10:38 AM

Pripyat, Ukraine

Gray secured the black belt over the Russian field jacket, careen He stamped his feet more securely into the boots Kowalski tossed him a furred cap The stolen uniform fit decently, but his partner’s outfit looked ready to burst at the seams The two Russian soldiers, stripped to their underclothes, had been posted at the front of the jailhouse Caught by surprise, it had not been hard to knock theo," Gray said and headed to a lanced over, realizing theabout a weapon They both had AN-94 Russian assault rifles